1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to data storage systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for releasing and re-allocating storage segments in a storage volume.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern storage controllers provide thin provisioning features that allocate storage space the first time data is written to a storage volume. It is also desirable for hosts to request that storage controllers to subsequently release all or part of the space in the volume. Once the space is released, new writes to the released space again trigger the storage controllers to allocate the space. In contemporary storage systems, this sequence of allocate, release, and re-allocate can take longer than it otherwise could.